


A Dream

by PinkPerfume



Category: TERA (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dreaming, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25743358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkPerfume/pseuds/PinkPerfume
Summary: Yeriss has a dream about what happened to Detrian in the Hungry Caverns.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 1





	A Dream

Warmth.

\---

It reminded her of Castanica. Home was nice and warm, and there was always something good cooking...

She was hungry.

She should go get some food.

And then Yeriss was in the kitchen. Her kitchen, but also not her kitchen. Her kitchen and the kitchen at the Federation barracks in Velika. There were a lot of people there, making food. She couldn't see what specifically.

If front of her was a large pot of tomato soup that came up to waist height. Someone came over and put some meat in, and stirred it.

Yeriss watched for a while, and then went to open a cabinet, looking for food. For some reason though, there was nothing but bones. She opened another, and was met with the same sight. Upon opening the third cabinet to discover yet again only bones, Yeriss was wondered just how popular bone marrow broth for soup _was_ in the South when she spotted a horned skull among the bones. It was it's size that caught her eye.

_Certainly this is much too large to belong to the goats the Federation owned as livestock that roamed near the city outskirts... or even the unicorns in the Fey Forest._

She knelt down for a closer look.

It was an Aman skull.

_Gross! What is this doing here?_

She grabbed the thing and whirled around with the intention to demand of the closest person just who was responsible for making such a mistake, but stopped dead in her tracks at the scene before her, the skull falling out of her hand to thunk on the floor.

This was a Gula kitchen! The ginormous grunting brutes lugged themselves about the kitchen, some carrying large bloody knives, others dumping unmentionables into the large pot at the center of the room she had previously erroneously thought to contain tomato soup. She knew without a doubt what it was now.

Immediately she scanned for a way out - though armed, without Sahlin there was no way she could take on this many at once in such a small space - and sprinted for the first door she saw, sending up a prayer to Mother Shara that she hadn't been seen.

Yeriss yanked so hard on the door knob that it fell clean off, but she didn't stop to bother, just shoved the door open and darted inside the dark hallway. As if a door could hold up to a Gula anyway. She raced down the hallway, listening for footsteps behind her, and when she heard none, turned her attention to what lay before her. She realized she was in a very large closet. There was light coming through what looked like metal bars up ahead.

As she came upon the bars, she saw a bunch of people inside. The kidnapped villagers! Yeriss slashed viciously at the metal bars with her sword, cutting a large hole as the metal yielded to her blade.

"Come, quickly!"

The villagers ran through one by one and disappeared as soon as they stepped outside the bars, saved. After the last one, Yeriss stepped inside to look for any stragglers. She spotted a child crying at the back against the wall.

"It's okay now." She said, coming over and placing a hand on the child's shoulder. "You're safe. You're free."

The child lifted their head, red-skin face streaked with tears. Silver hair parted to reveal tiny horns.

**Hennika.**

Yeriss gasped - _of course! Detrian! She had to get to Detrian before it was too late, or else..._

She turned, and she was in the Hungry Caverns now, running. She saw a small shed up ahead. Somehow, she knew Detrian was in there. She pushed her legs as fast as they would go, but no matter how much she tried she couldn't seem to go faster.

Finally making it to the shed, she flung upon the door and burst in. On the floor was a large brown burlap bag. She bolted for it, knowing somehow that Detrian was in there.

Whipping out a dagger, she slit the rope around the moth of the bag and yanked it open.

But Detrian was gone.

Yeriss groaned in anguish, knowing he was gone for good.

She turned, and Hennika was by her side, desperately clutching the empty bag to her chest, loudly sobbing blubbered denials of "no" at the absence of her brother.

She was filled with an overwhelming sense of loss.

\---

Yeriss floated into light and consciousness, one by one became aware that her eyes were closed, she was laying down on her back, in bed covered in blankets, and that she had been dreaming. As soon as she fully came to, she rolled over and buried her face in her arms, overwhelmed by the onslaught of emotion that rose up within her as she recalled the dream, ending with Hennika's desperate face as she clung to the empty bag. Her throat thickened with sorrow, and her eyes burned as tears burst forth and slipped down her face, clutching at her chest, overcome by the intense hollow feeling that relentlessly stabbed there.

How could she have failed when the consequences were so deep? She had never failed before when such explicitly clear, devastating consequences had been near. She'd always come close, but pulled through in the end, so she'd foolishly thought it was going to be okay, that she'd get there in time in the end. If she'd known, she would've pushed herself even faster. Focused even better. She'd missed her chance to save Detrian by seconds. She would've gotten there in time.

She imagined it. She could see it clearly, if she'd been able to focus and not miss her heartstab on that one Gula, had studied the map of the caverns more thoroughly on first glance to not have to constantly check it and navigate, if she'd sucked up her damn selfish hesitation like Sahlin told her to and just dove right in and swam in that cold water, she'd have made it in time to join Detrian's fight against the four Gula that had overwhelmed him. Would've stopped, with her sword, the creation of the wound that ended his life.

She could've made it.

_She could've made it._

She could've made it in time to save him.

But reality was clear.

She hadn't.

She'd failed.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write this dream differently than how they're usually written, in a way I feel is more realistic to how people dream in real life. Hence why the progression of the dream is strange and not linear.
> 
> Originally written in 2017-05-29, just moving this here.


End file.
